Sponsor a child and change their life for good

Child sponsorship is a unique relationship, that brings real hope and a life-affirming experience. Sponsorship gives children and their communities life-changing basics like nutritious food, clean water, healthcare and education. And it lasts. Sponsor a child and save a childhood today.

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By searching orphans you will only see children who have lost one or more parents (this definition contrasts with
concepts of orphan in many industrialized countries, where a child must have lost both parents to qualify as an
orphan. UNICEF and numerous international organizations adopted the broader definition of orphan).

My birthday is on the 17th August and I have 1 brother and 1 sister. My favourite game is playing ball games. In Kibiga-Mulagi (Kimu) life is hard for children like me. But sponsor me today and you can change my world for good.

DESIRE lives in Kibiga-Mulagi (Kimu), Uganda. By sponsoring her, you can help her whole community, to make it a better place for children.

DESIRE's life in Uganda

16:30

24°C

DESIRE’s daily needs:

For children like DESIRE, growing up in Kibiga-Mulagi, illness and death from disease are everyday realities. Children drop out of school to collect dirty water from far away. Those that stay at school experience overcrowded classrooms and poorly trained teachers.

Children get sick from drinking dirty water.

Children often fall sick, and may die from preventable diseases.

Children don't get enough food to eat, and often go hungry.

Your sponsorship can change DESIRE's world, and her community, for good.

How Sponsorship Helps

Sponsoring DESIRE

£
26

Choosing Gift Aid could increase this to £32.50 at no extra cost to you per month provides

Choosing Gift Aid could increase this to £32.50 at no extra cost to you ?

Your sponsorship will help provide safe clean drinking water for children, in villages and schools.

Your donations will vaccinate children and provide life-saving care in clinics.

You'll help families grow enough food to feed their children.

How sponsorship works

When you sponsor a child for £26 a month it brings much needed change to one child… and many more. The benefits you help provide, extend to your child's family, their community and other children in need. This is because we partner, plan and work alongside local community members to help build healthy, sustainable communities for vulnerable children in the world’s hardest places.

We listen

We listen to the child's community and help to identify their main needs.

We develop

We work with the community to develop a long-term action plan.

We act

We make sure immediate needs are met, then move on to start the process of deeper, sustainable change.

We train

We train volunteers, empower local groups, and provide resources and support for the community to make changes that will last long into the future.

What will your donation actually change?

Because of our community-focused solutions, for every child you help, four more children benefit, too. Depending on the priority needs in your child’s community, as a sponsor you will be improving lives by providing:

Clean water

Each year children are dying from diseases caught by drinking dirty water. World Vision is reaching one new person with clean water every 10 seconds and brings clean water to three more schools every day.

Healthcare

We save lives by training volunteer health care assistants, bringing vaccination programmes, and working with families to help protect their children from infection and disease ensuring the most vulnerable have access to healthcare services.

Food

We deliver nutrition programmes and farmers' schools, teaching new techniques to grow stronger crops, protect the soil and grow kitchen gardens - helping families feed their children and saving millions of lives around the world.

Education

Education can transform a child’s life. We’re improving basic literacy and numeracy and working alongside communities to help them better understand their children's rights, and raise their voices to protect and provide for their children.

Family income

We provide training in new skills, and support mothers to start their own businesses helping provide a stable income so children and families can have better nutrition, healthcare and greater access to education.

Create lasting change

When you sponsor a child, you transform their life by helping to create lasting changes for their entire community

We work with whole communities to understand what they need.

We then work together to plan and deliver the changes that will make life better for them and their children - now and always.

Why choose World Vision?

We are the world’s largest international children’s charity, working to bring real hope to millions of children in the world’s hardest places.

60Years old

We have 60 years of experience changing the lives of children around the world

3mChildren

In 2017, UK donors transformed the lives of more than 4 million children

4,000New sponsors

43Projects

What makes child sponsorship special?

You’ll build a lasting friendship

You can exchange letters of support and learn about your child’s progress. You could even visit your child.

Your friendship brings hope

Meanwhile, the friendship you build together will bring them real hope and encouragement, helping them reach their full potential.

You see the difference you’re making

By following your child's progress you'll be part of their life and see first-hand the difference you’re making.

What do I get as a sponsor?

This week

Sign up to My Sponsorship - your online account where you'll find updates, news and
videos from your sponsored child and their community. You can even email your child,
send them photos or find out what the weather is like where they live!

Next week

Within the first week of signing up, we’ll email you a video of your sponsored child’s
community giving you an insight into their daily life.

Within two weeks

You’ll receive a welcome pack with more information, a writing set and two
friendship
bracelets - one for you to send to your child and one to keep.

In 12 weeks time

You'll have received your very first letter from your sponsored child. You can write to
them anytime by post or online via My Sponsorship. We'll translate and hand-deliver
every message and you'll always get a reply.

On your child’s birthday and at Christmas

We’ll send you a card that you can add a message to for you sponsored child. Don’t be
surprised
if these arrive a couple of months before the big day - it’s just to make sure they get
there in time.

Once a year

We’ll send you a progress update every year, including:

A new photo so you can see how they’ve grown

An update on how their life is changing

Details on how your donations have been used in the community that year

A note or drawing from your sponsored child.

You can visit your child

Visiting your sponsored child is a great way to see for yourself the difference that
sponsorship makes. You can experience first-hand the transformation that your
generosity can bring to a community living in poverty.

So what next?

Frequently Asked Questions

World Vision only work within countries where we have our own offices; this way, we ensure that we can fully account for all the money that we receive. We have audited accounts that are publically available at any time. As a charity, we are regulated by the Charities Commission – a legal body, which oversees all UK charities and their activities. We are a not-for-profit organisation, and we know that the continued support we receive is dependent on our efficient use of supporters’ money. Our Annual Report is available to anyone who requests it.

We work with national governments and other international agencies to identify the regions and communities that are most in need, some of the hardest places where the most vulnerable children live. We then meet with community leaders and the wider community to gain a greater understanding of the challenges and the opportunities that exist for them and we develop a long-term plan together, to break the cycle of poverty.

Sponsorship brings much needed change to more than just one child — the benefits you help provide extends to each child's family, their community and other children in need. This is because World Vision partners, plans and works alongside local community members to help build healthy, sustainable communities for vulnerable children in the world’s hardest places.

Millions of children around the world need help to break the never-ending cycle of poverty. Hunger weakens them. Unsafe drinking water makes them sick. Missing out on an education can stop them from reaching their potential.

As a sponsor, you will help provide a child with sustainable access to life-changing basics like nutritious food, clean water, healthcare and education.

How? We work with a community, establishing together what work is required, and setting realistic goals for what can be achieved. If something's not working, we'll review it and change it.

Whether it’s training people in how to set up their own small business, drilling a bore hole or developing irrigation systems with farmers to produce a greater yield – we want sustainable change so that communities are equipped to give their children the best start in life.

The donation you give does not go directly to your sponsored child or family. That's because experience has taught us it’s more effective to use the money on projects that will benefit your sponsored child’s community as a whole, at the same time improving the wellbeing of the child you sponsor.

We have 60 years experience of working with parents and communities to improve the lives of children. We’ve learnt a lot in that time, and we are very good at it.

We help to change a child’s life by working with the community where they live. Children are often the first to feel the impact of poverty. Being community based means that World Vision’s development experts work with the whole community to address their priorities for improving the lives of their children.

The challenges that communities face keep their children from reaching their full potential. For example, a community that does not have access to clean water will inevitably have children that are unhealthy. Communities without adequate ways for families to generate income, have more children that cannot afford to go to school or eat. Communities that do not have adequate access to government services like healthcare and birth registration are limited in what they can provide for their children.

However, building a better community for children takes time. It involves things like building trusting relationships so we can work together, teaching people new skills and providing them with the right tools. It also includes transforming mind sets and looking at the importance of doing things differently so their children can have better futures. Our work within a community usually stretches over 10-15 years. The impact of child-focused community development is ongoing and along the way children’s health improves, communities become more resilient and families gain hope for their children.

£26 per month is what it costs for us to do this, but it works. We know it works, because we have 60 years experience of making it work.

You'll be given the opportunity to find out how your child is doing alongside regular news from their community that will help you build a relationship that could change both your lives. "I am so happy to have a friend in another country that I can write to and share pictures with," says Nareh from Armenia. “I am studying the Armenian alphabet. When I learn them all, I will teach them to my distant friend. I am so happy to have a friend in another country.”

Our promise to you: We will always respect your preferences and you can change the way you hear from us at
any time, or opt-out from all communications by contacting us. Simply call freephone 08000 858188 or email
info@worldvision.org.uk. We will always treat your data with
the utmost respect in line with current Data Protection laws and commit to storing your personal information securely and will
never sell or share your information with others.

Who we are

World Vision believes that by working together with children, their communities, and our supporters and partners, the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children can be transformed. As a Christian organisation, we aspire to reflect God’s unconditional love in all we do.